Eric Garcetti Makes Me Proud

I am deeply impressed and even humbled when someone has a commitment to changing the world and spending a major part of their life to making this planet a better place to live. It’s not something you see every day. As a society, we don’t tend to offer a lot of support to people who choose this difficult journey. But I thank my lucky stars that someone has the backbone to step up and he’s our own home-boy City Council President Eric Garcettii.

Today he’s being honored with the 2006 New Frontiers award given by Senator Edward Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy in Boston. He’s being honored with this award along with Jane Leu, Founder and Executive Director of Upwardly Global.
The New Frontier Awards was created a couple of years ago to honor young Americans under the age of 40 (and Eric is still just a baby at 35) who are changing their communities – and the country – with their commitment to public service. The two awards are presented annually to two exceptional young Americans whose contributions in elective office and non-elective community service or advocacy demonstrate the impact and the value of public service in the spirit of John F. Kennedy.

2 Replies to “Eric Garcetti Makes Me Proud”

In general, Eric has done a lot to facilitate making the neighborhoods he represents more livable. For instance, in Hollywood, where parking is a horror, he was key in getting the “Holly Trolly” rolling which allows people who are out on the town to park at numerous parking spots for $2-5 (rather than pay the inflated $40 fees most Hollywood lots charge at night) and ride to wherever they want around Hollywood.

He has also been instrumental in helping Hollywood turn around from a pretty down and out place to one that supports a legion of thriving business today. it’s gone from hooker/drug alley to a more vitalized place. (yes, I know, there’s still hookers/drug hook-ups, but it’s not nearly so menacing).

He’s been instrumental in getting a new low income housing development at Gower/Hollywood to help homeless people actually get a place to live.

I’m sure there’s lots more…. but those are just a few of the things I’m aware of. I also like that he and his staff are incredibly responsive to their constiuents. And he’s ridiculously communicative. He even has his own blog! C’mon. Cut the guy a break. Like I said in the post… public service opens you up to lots of potshots…. rarely do any of us acknowledge the effort it takes to get ANYTHING in govt done!